Nik Havert

Don’t “Walk Away” from Anika’s new single.

Anika — the British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson — releases the new single/video, “Walk Away,” from her new album, Abyss, out April 4th on Sacred Bones. Following the “righteously hypnotic” (Paste) lead single, “Hearsay,” “Walk Away” is a surprisingly jolly 90s alt-rock tinged track with blatantly honest lyrics: “The truth is I don’t really like myself/ And the truth is I don’t really like anyone else… Sometimes I know, life can just suck… And the truth is, I’d rather you just go to hell… And the truth is, I’d rather the whole world did as well.”

On the track, Henderson says: “This song is saying all the things I want to say but am too scared to say or that society doesn’t accept me to say. It is dealing with mental health – the state of poor mental health in these fucked up, divided, isolated, social media, war, pest, rise of the right times. It is the deconstruction of the feminine – of topics considered to be private realm.” As inspiration, Henderson cites “the reckless nature of 90s /2000s Hole / Courtney Love records – of not giving a shit – telling it how it is, not scared to offend, not scared to be cancelled. We have also lost the space for healthy debate, for difference of opinion, shutting down those we don’t agree with, removing them from our social networks.”

The song’s accompanying video directed by Laura Martinova was shot in an ex-brothel in Berlin and “plays with the socially constructed ideas of femininity, of sexuality, of sexual restriction and confronts them,” Henderson explains. “The character is quite sufficient by herself, sexually and socially liberated – and also a bit of a mess, destroying the prim and proper idea of how a good wifey should be. She is a hedonist, she lets herself go, she shows anger, she shows being drunk, she seems to enjoy dusting the pictures of the naked ladies very much, she is independent and breaking out of all the bars imposed by the patriarchy. The guy in the video never finds her, never even gets close, doesn’t in the slightest disrupt her life, he continues to look but she seems to always be a step ahead.”

Watch the video for “Walk Away”

Anika created Abyss out of the frustration, anger, and confusion she feels from existing in our contemporary world. Notably heavier than her previous releases, the 10-track Abyss feels raw, urgent, and fueled by strong emotions. Abyss was recorded live to tape at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin (where the likes of Depeche Mode and David Bowie also recorded) in just a few days. Recording live and with minimal overdubs was an important decision, Anika stresses, in order to capture the raw immediacy of the album. As before, she wrote the songs herself, before fleshing them out with Martin Thulin of Exploded View, and then assembled a live band to join the pair in the studio – comprising of Andrea Belfi on drums, Tomas Nochteff on bass (Mueran Humanos) and Lawrence Goodwin (The Pleasure Majenta) on guitar, with studio engineering done by Nanni Johansson and Frida Claeson Johansson.

Watch the video for “Hearsay”

Pre-order Abyss

Anika Tour Dates:
Sun. Apr. 20 – Berlin, DE @ Volksbühne
Thu. Apr. 24 – Cologne, DE @ C/O Pop
Fri. Apr. 25 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Sun. Apr. 27 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Mon. Apr. 28 – London, UK @ Omeara
Tue. Apr. 29 – Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
Wed. Apr. 30 – Manchester, UK @ YES (Pink Room)
Thu. May 1 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Fri. May 2 – Belfast, UK @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Sat. May 3 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Mon. May 5 – Brighton, UK @ DUST
Tue. May 6 – Paris, FR @ Gonzai Night @ Petit Bain
Wed. May 7 – Strasbourg, FR @ La Grenze
Thu. May 8 – Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
Fri. May 9 – Zürich, CH @ Bogen F
Sat. May 10 – Frankfurt, DE @ Mousonturm

Keep your mind open.

[Walk over to the subscription box.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Kara-Lis Coverdale announces first new music in eight years.

Kara-Lis Coverdale — “one of the most exciting composers in North America” (The Guardian) — announces her first new album in eight years, From Where You Came, out May 9th via Smalltown Supersound, and shares its lead single “Daze.”

A dynamic and sublime work steeped in emotion and sensitivity, From Where You Came unspools as a series of nocturnal transmissions, altered-state refinements, and vivid stories, rich in vibrant, illuminating qualities. Drawing together 19th century programmatic music, mid-’70s jazz, and her distinctively colorful and multi-dimensional approach to composition, she conducts emotional resonance like currents of charge, hard-wiring the purely felt into electronic signals.

Though written and recorded across several continents, including at the GRM Studio in Parisand the Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm, From Where You Came was completed in rural Ontario, Canada. Featuring contributions from multidisciplinary sound artist and cellist Anne Bourne and GRAMMY award winning trombone prodigy Kalia Vandever, the album’s eleven expansive yet condensed compositions incorporate strings, woodwind, brass, keys, software and modular synthesis, inscribing a musical language that resonates animations with unfiltered, striking clarity. “Anything can have a voice,” says Coverdale. “For me, voice is beyond human”.

Reckoning with the experience of grief, dislocation, and the pressure of total freedom and independence, Coverdale yields supernatural capacity to transfer tribulation into highly imaginative and inspiring fantasy epics of sound. Lead single “Daze” feels like the joy of flight — wind choruses dance and twirl in ornate cycles as dissonant portamentos ascend to soaring heights, gliding across turbulent gales to new pockets of harmonic plateaus.

Listen to “Daze”

Born in Burlington, Canada and of Estonian heritage, From Where You Came is Coverdale’s first major new work since Grafts (2017), Aftertouches (2015, Sacred Phrases), and A 480 (2014, Constellation Tatsu). Coverdale has performed concert halls, clubs, and festivals throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia headlining and touring with Big Thief, Caribou, Gagaku Ensemble and Floating Points (including as a part of his Promises ensemble at The Hollywood Bowl in LA). She has previously collaborated with with Actress, Yasuaki Shimizu, Caterina Barbieri and Lyra Pramuk and has created compositions for film, theatre, dance, symphonic instrumentation, and installation, including Cello Octet Amsterdam, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Vanemuine Theatre, NYC Contemporaneous Ensemble and Ludens Choir with pipe organ a connective tissue throughout much of her work.

Pre-order From Where You Came

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

j.o.y.s. releases “heights” from upcoming debut album.

“heights” is the second single from j.o.y.s.– the moniker of Ramon Narvaez’s ambient project. j.o.y.s. is an acronym for “jump out of your skin” – an apt expression for Narvaez’s project that views the album as a documentation and definable marker of a life always in flux.

From Ramon on “heights”:

“heights” is the second single from j.o.y.s. Broken into two parts, it follows myself and my collaborator Bestamo as we contemplate our residencies in the neighborhoods we existed during the making of this record; the neighborhoods of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles and Crown Heights in Brooklyn. As with our previous single, we meditate on this instrumental music with a companion poem:

“well no shit, i’m like sisyphus,

because unlike many in this metropolis,

my parents are not funding this.

it’s all a near miss, to wait here wishless;

on a waitlist for a wish list,

just because i’m your one puerto rican friend,

doesn’t mean you’re not a little bit racist.

and just because i’m puerto rican,

doesn’t mean i’m not participating in the inevitable gentrifying of all of it.

awake from a sound sleep, there’s no forgiveness.

our disease is our disease.

on my knees, no company to keep.

you say it can’t always be a crisis,

when it is in fact, constantly a crisis.

gliding between life and death,

but i digress, i guess.

this one goes out to boyle heights, humboldt park, crown heights and all the rest.”

After years of trying to maintain some semblance of an art life while maintaining odd jobs, I began thinking of how truly difficult it can be to not have extra financial help while the cost of living rises seemingly indefinitely. This triggered the unfortunate realization that some of the people I chose to call friends were able to continue to live in these ever gentrifying neighborhoods due to some form of immense privilege. All the while playing a part in the suppressing of the innate culture within and living in a place with “affordable” rent myself only contributed to my ambivalence further.

It’s prompted me to look a bit more closely at what it means to be a somewhat assimilated Puerto Rican person having spent time growing up in central New Jersey and the Bronx, all the while the under the continued pressure conform to a society in a country that has bastardized the island where my true mixed ethnic roots originated.

How far have I distanced myself from the eleventh floor of a high rise on Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx that my grandparents rented? The one that always smelled of Puerto Rican cooking and had doors that remained open to the little community within the building. How many of those communities are continuously being uprooted by a greedy developer so those aromas of home cooking are replaced with some hack instagram recipe cooked by a tech bro that pays $4000 a month to live out his dreams of big city adjacent livin’?

The cover art features a reenactment of orcas attacking a yacht which signifies to me a true act of mother nature hopefully get us all back on the right track. A track where “community” isn’t some sort of performative buzzword.

Love,

Ramon 2025

—

While ostensibly an ambient record, the musical touchstones of Ramon Narvaez and his collaborator Justin Gaynor span from 90’s alternative and the gnarliest of shoegazers to Daniel Lanois’ seminal Goodbye to Language. These expressions are presented unpretentiously on j.o.y.s. highlighting the serpentine path out of the New Jersey hardcore scene to Narvaez’s current home in Los Angeles. Both scenes live and converse on this record. Brutalist slabs of noise are stretched across the desert landscape and met by elegiac pedal steel.

The album is presented beautifully. A 14 page companion zine comes with a poem written by Narvaez for each composition. The result is a metacommentary and trenchant observation of being a D.I.Y. artist in the world of celebrity artists, trust fund modular synth bros and A.I. generated ambient music.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll feel joy if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Ryan at Clandestine Label Services.]

Psychic Pigs announces debut album due May 23, 2025.

Two decades as one-half of the garage psych-pop duo Crocodiles confined San Diegan musician Brandon Welchez to the mid-fi n’ melodic end of the sonic spectrum, but his new project, Psychic Pigs, shows a different side with how the raw n’ bleeding hardcore punk and power pop bands on the Killed By Death compilations influenced his work just as much as The Jesus and Mary Chain has. Psychic Pigs certainly has a certain Robert Louis Stevenson novella angle to Welchez’s career, but the unhinged nature of the songwriting boils down to Welchez not sticking to his comfort zone.

Psychic Pigs was born from Welchez writing music he knew was too discordant for Crocodile’s poppy sound. Recorded in April 2024 over four days while in London with Jonah Falco (Fucked Up, Career Suicide) handling the production helm and the drum kit, the project went Stateside with the goal mind of forming a band that could replicate the aggressive live sound captured on the recordings. Connections throughout the years proved fruitful as the live band rounds out with Fake Fruits, Surfbort, and Choir Boy members. The march of the Pigs begins this month in downtown Los Angeles on March 19th as they make their live debut at The Escondite with their record release show held at Permanent Records Roadhouse in late May. More dates are to come.

Psychic Pigs will be released on vinyl and through all DSPs on May 23rd. Pre-orders are now running through Slovenly Recordings.

Keep your mind open.

[I predict you will subscribe today.]

[Thanks to Matthew at Shattered Platter PR.]

Gelli Haha brings the fun on her debut single – “Bounce House.”

A shapeshifter, a sonic acrobat, a performer with one foot in the cosmos and the other in arthouse theatrics, Gelli Haha (pronounced Jelly Haha) is a space for pure creative chaos.

For the opening trick, Gelli Haha presents her debut album, Switcheroo. Gelli’s music thrives on duality: playful but profound, tongue-in-cheek but sincere. Switcheroo is the soundtrack to the Gelliverse, a sensory adventure sphere created by Gelli.

Her debut art pop single “Bounce House” flashes back to youth-like innocence with high upbeat energy, turning the dance floor into a playground. The track’s accompanying music video rockets viewers straight into Gelliverse. This live revue is an invitation into a world of choreography, dolphin balloons, flutes, mini trampolines, and a stage bathed in the project’s primary color, red – bold and full of mischief. The 360 experience was shot all in one take by director David Gutel.

Listen / Playlist / Share “Bounce House”
Watch Official Music Video

With a shared taste for off-kilter pop and vintage gear, producer Sean Guerin (of De Lux) joined Gelli in turning freshly-formed demos into a high-voltage experiment, abandoning meticulous structure for something freer and more electrifying. Every song on Switcheroo makes use of a myriad of recording toys; wacky analog effects, such as the Eventide Harmonizer, MXR Pitch Transposer, and various Electrix units, fashion an intentionally flawed and strictly silly texture throughout the album.

Switcheroo is an exercise in letting go, an inside joke turned theatrical spectacle. Participation is encouraged. Surrender is required. Switcheroo sees its release June 27 via Innovative Leisure. Gelli Haha performs March 22 in her hometown of Los Angeles at Permanent Records just ahead of her appearance at this year’s Treefort Music Fest. For more info, follow Gelli Haha on Instagram.

Pre-Order / Pre-Save Switcheroo

Keep your mind open.

[Bounce over to the subscription box!]

[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side!]

SOAPBOX nearly slap you into oblivion with new single – “Do As Ur Told.”

Already gaining attention for their live shows and even louder political views, Glasgow’s SOAPBOX announce new EP LOCK IN out 25th April as well as sharing new single ‘Do As Ur Told’. The band will also be appearing at various festivals this Summer across UK & EU.

SOAPBOX have graced the cover of Spotify’s The Punk List amongst being included in other playlists such as New Music Friday, All New Punk, and Hot New Bands. Pulling from influences like The Damned to Soft Play, Amyl and the Sniffers and Viagra Boys, the band say about their music, “we all have a severe praise kink so as long as people keep listening, we’re happy.”

Their new EP LOCK IN follows last year’s HAWD THAT, and comes out the same day they play their biggest headline to date at 500 capacity Glasgow School of Art.

‘Do As Ur Told’ is a song about abuse of power, explains vocalist Tom Rowan.

“Its lyrics are specific to a bad experience we had in the music industry where we felt we were being taken for a ride, but we feel it’s more broadly about being strong-armed into situations which are non-beneficial. The frustration we feel as musicians struggling to scratch out a living, and being squeezed on every penny we do make by other parties, translates to situations people find themselves in every day whether that’s off of a colleague, boss, landlord or someone else in a position of power over them.”

Listen to ‘Do As Ur Told’ HERE

Refusing to stray from their political stance, the band promoted their last EP with posters featuring their lyrics about Nazis and BDSM around Glasgow. Not even a week later, the posters were hastily removed due to a volume of complaints from Glasgow City Council. The band responded, “Glasgow City Council don’t believe in punching Nazis apparently” and urged fans to seek out any remaining posters.

In true SOAPBOX fashion, the band have faced more controversy surrounding a run of posters they plastered over Glasgow which featured their contentious lyrics and political support from politician Jeremy Corbyn. Previously, the band received an unsolicited endorsement from Alt-right ring-leader Gavin McInnes which was covered in The Times.

SOAPBOX are: Tom Rowan (Vocals) He/Him, Angus Husbands (Guitar) He/Him, Aidan Bowskill (Bass) He/Him, Jenna Nimmo (Drums) They/Them

LOCK IN EP out 25th April.

Tour Dates

Fri 21 Mar – North Shields, The Engine Room
Sat 22 Mar – Blackpool, Bootleg Social
Sun 23 Mar – York, The Crescent *with KID KAPICHI
Sat 05 Apr – Middlesbrough, This Is Middlesbrough Fri 18th Apr – Carlisle, The Brickyard
Fri 25 Apr Glasgow, The Garage
Fri 23 May – Den Haag Netherlands, Sniester Festival
Sat 24 May – Amsterdam Netherlands, Pretty Pissed Festival Thu 29 May – Paris France, Supersonic’s Block Party Festival
Fri 30 May – Paris France, Supersonic’s Block Party Festival
Sat 31 May – Mannheim Germany, Maifeld Derby
Sun 03 Aug – Cumbria, Kendal Calling

Keep your mind open.

[Subscribe now!]

[Thanks to Amy at After Hours PR.]

Salem 66 to release new compilation of tracks out of print for decades.

Salem 66 were founded by Judy Grunwald, Beth Kaplan and Susan Merriam in Boston in 1982. A major part of a thriving Boston scene that produced bands like Mission of Burma and Dinosaur Jr (Dinosaur Jr’s first New York show was notably an opening slot for Salem 66 at Folk City), the band were ahead of their time.

They were one of the few women-led bands in their scene, and made their mark with an adventurous blend of arty post-punk (they notably covered Wire’s “Fragile”) and melodic pop. Between 1984 and 1990 they released one self-titled EP, 2 singles and 4 albums, 1985’s A Ripping Spin, 1987’s Frequency & Urgency, 1988’s Natural Disasters, National Treasures, and 1990’s Down The Primrose Path (produced by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie who went on to produce Radiohead’s Pablo Honey and Hole’s Live Through This), all on the venerable New York imprint Homestead Records, label home to bands like Sonic Youth, Big Black and The Chills. The band earned comparisons to R.E.M., The Talking Heads and The Velvet Underground from The New York Times, and further praise from outlets like Rolling Stone, CREEM, and the Village Voice. They shared stages with The Replacements, Mission of Burma, the Go-Betweens, the Wipers, the Saints and the Raincoats, and toured across the country on multiple occasions, but despite their prominence in the ’80s, the Salem 66 catalog has been out of print for decades and their music has never been available on streaming.

Today, Don Giovanni Records are announcing a new compilation entitled SALT, and have made the band’s music available on all streaming services for the first time. To mark the announce the band are sharing a recently unearthed video for their song “Lucky Penny.”

Beth Kaplan says of the reissue:

“We were a long time putting together this re-release, and it has been a journey – from finding the pictures to not finding the master tapes, from writing up some thoughts to deciding which songs to include here. Judy and I picked the songs and it wasn’t easy. After exploring and rejecting more scientific methods, ultimately we decided to just highlight some of our favorites, or, the songs that felt the most like us. So what you see (or hear) here is not necessarily a representative sampling from all of the recordings but it does feel, to me, like a pretty good Salem 66 sampler. Like a cross-stitch. Or a Whitman’s Sampler.

“I hope you enjoy this record. If you were there with us, on the scene, whether in Boston or another town, I hope this brings you back to those youthful, passionate, perfectly imperfect days. If the band or the songs are new to you, or if you were born a generation or two after the fact, I hope you enjoy a glimpse at this sliver of a sliver of history.”

The band’s catalog is available on all streaming services now, and the SALT compilation will be available on June 6th via Don Giovanni.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Rewind Review: Iguana Death Cult – Echo Palace (2022)

Hailing from The Netherlands, Iguana Death Cult both blend and defy genres on their 2022 album Echo Palace.

Opening with funky post-punk on “Paper Straws,” IDC instantly reminded me of !!! with their quirky dance grooves and solid bass lines from Justin Boer. The title track brought some of Parquet Courts‘ groovier stuff to mind, and Tobias Opschoor‘s frenetic guitar riffs on it are great.

“Pushermen” is a good example of the band clicking together in the studio, as they wrote it in about an hour. It seems to be a song about escaping the constraints of the urban grind (“Living in a box of concrete, how do you keep occupied?…Maybe I’ll take you anywhere. Don’t believe the hype. Maybe I’ll take you anywhere. Freedom’s in the mind.”).

“Sunny Side Up” is a quirky garage rock track, not unlike early Devo, about how trying to make it through a typical day of work and the “superficial spectacle.” (“I’d give you all of my money if I could borrow some time.”). Benjamin Herman‘s guest saxophone solo on “Sensory Overload” is outstanding. “Conference to Conference” once again tackles the banality of the corporate life.

“I Just Want a House” is a great post-punk track with great back-and-forth vocals between Jeroen Reek and his bandmates as they pine for a simpler life away from the hustle and bustle (“I’ll admit I’m confused on how we even got here. Just want a house where I can lay back.”). “Oh No” is like a lit fuse racing toward a pound of dynamite. Boer’s bass borders on panic, and Reek blasts out trombone honks to inspire more wild dancing in the clubs.

“Rope a Dope” is a good example of Arjen van Opstal‘s “sounds easy but is deceptively difficult for others to place” drumming ability and the keen and subtle use of Jimmy de Kok‘s synthesizers. You realize that a lot of the tracks on Echo Palace wouldn’t sound right without them.

van Opstal’s hi-hat work is on-point on “Heaven in Disorder,” and I love the slight echo effect on Opschoor’s guitar in it – and the neat sense of menace in the last quarter of the song. The album ends with the garage / new wave (How did they mix those genres so well?) rocker “Radio Brainwave.” It’s a great way to wrap up the record.

I discovered IDC when I saw them open for Osees last October. They won over the crowd right away, and I’m keen to see where they go next.

Keep your mind open.

[I just want you to subscribe.]

Review: Lonnie Holley – Tonky

Lonnie Holley is singer, songwriter, artist, educator, and poet…and, surprisingly to me, a trip hop artist. I knew that his new album, Tonky (named after his nickname from growing up in and around honkytonks), would be full of gripping tales from his life and views on the current American landscape. I didn’t expect it to be layered with found sounds, electric beats, and trip hop touches.

The opening track, “Seeds,” is the longest at over nine minutes and has Holly telling about how fields he worked as a child until he was exhausted or often beaten so bad he couldn’t sleep. The string instruments strum out growing tension while simple synth chords are like the hums of spectres watching from the other side of the veil. “Life” is a short poem of hope with Holley encouraging us to use small actions to grow big change.

“Protest with Love” is the most punk rock song I’ve heard in a long while, and it’s wrapped in a lush trip hop track. “If you’re gonna protest, protest with love…Let love do its thing,” Holly advises. Loving thy neighbor, heck, just being nice, is one of the most rebellious acts you can do in 2025. In the jazz and post-funk (Is that a thing?)-inspired “The Burden,” Holley tells us all that it’s on us to remember those who came before and how we need to honor them (“The burden is like a spell that’s been cast upon you. Burdens of our ancestors to unravel and clarify in history.”).

“Let those who have ears, let them hear…We might not have it all together, but together we have it all,” Holley preaches in the beginning of “The Stars” — a powerful track about how people brought over on slave ships saw the same stars we now see, but how much have we progressed since then? The included rap by Open Mike Eagle is so slick it might drop you to the floor.

Holley makes sure you’re paying attention on the growling (and slightly funky) “We Were Kings in the Jungle, Slaves in the Field.” “Strength of a Song” has some of Holley’s strongest vocals on the record as he sings about finding hope and power in music. Near-industrial drums make “What’s Going On” sound like a roaring muscle car engine. “I Looked Over My Shoulder” is psychedelic jazz mixed with dark-wave synths.

“Wait a minute…” Holley says at the beginning of “Did I Do Enough?” Good heavens, haven’t we all thought that at some point — especially if you’ve been through a tragedy, or someone close to you has? The song is just Holley’s heartfelt vocals above ambient synths that build to gospel-like grandeur and it’s a stunner. “That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music” has Holley firing back the criticisms aimed at black music and culture upon their detractors.

The album ends with the hopeful “A Change Is Gonna Come,” but Holley asks, “Are we ready for something to happen?” One has to recognize the signs, when to stand up, and when to take flight. We have to be willing to accept change from divisiveness to inclusion. “How can I love God without loving you?” a woman asks not only herself, but also all of us. It’s the main message Holley wants to convey, and one we all must hear.

This is already one of the best albums of the year.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Sally Shapiro share “The Other Days” from upcoming new album due May 30, 2025.

Swedish italo disco / synthpop duo Sally Shapiro announce their fifth studio album, Ready To Live A Lie out May 30th and today are sharing the first single “The Other Days”. Taking inspiration from synthwave, italo disco, nudisco, indie pop and bossanova, the album becomes their second for Italians Do It Better – again mixed together with label founder Johnny Jewel (Chromatics, Glass Candy, Desire).

“The Other Days” on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eIwjvEdUMvI?si=PzVUYfjT6509Smif
“The Other Days” on other streaming services: https://idib.ffm.to/theotherdays
“The Other Days” on Bandcamp: https://sallyshapiro.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-days

Made up of producer Johan Agebjörn and an anonymous female vocalist who uses the pseudonym Sally Shapiro; the duo are known for their dreamy, melancholic sound and nostalgic homage to 1980s Italo disco and gained international recognition with their debut album Disco Romance (2007), which was then followed by My Guilty Pleasure (2009), Somewhere Else (2013) and their debut for Italians Do It Better Sad Cities (2022).

The name “Sally Shapiro” has always referred to both the duo, as well as the enigmatic anonymous singer whose real name is something else. But “Sally” is also a third entity: the fictional character singing about her love stories. It’s now been 18 years since Sally Shapiro’s debut album Disco Romance, that took influences from italo disco and indie pop with a naive and youthful flavor, as if everything “Sally” did was to “walk in the moonshine thinking about my love affairs”, as she once put it.

Ready To Live A Lie may, however, be the duo’s darkest album yet. The lyrics have shifted from the euphoria of first love to exploring “Sally’s” struggles in long-term relationships—love triangles, boredom, resentment, and the lingering sense of loneliness.

On the record, Johan said, “We live in the era of lies. We deceive ourselves, our partners, and those around us. On social media, we paint pictures of perfect lives, only to be fed falsehoods in return—by algorithms, newsfeeds, and politicians.”

Sally added, “But perhaps, at times, we need these deceptions to get by. Maybe loneliness is somehow inescapable and we simply do our best to navigate life.”

Ready To Live A Lie is out on Italians Do It Better on May 30th and includes the duo’s acclaimed Pet Shop Boys cover “Rent.”

Pre-save album: https://idib.ffm.to/readytolivealie

Keep your mind open.

[I’m ready for you to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]